14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s plans to bring the Office productivity suite on some other platforms beyond Windows are already known, but the company has always refused to provide more details on this project.
Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet is reporting, citing internal sources, that the Gemini plan, which among others also includes the touch versions of Office, is said to be taking more time to hit the market because of a new product strategy and internal politics.
Redmond is working hard to bring Office on the Modern UI on Windows 8 and 8.1, especially because the company is trying to provide the full experience to adopters of its latest operating systems regardless of whether they are using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on a tablet or a laptop.
To do this, Microsoft reportedly needs to rebuild the touch version of Office from scratch, which obviously takes more time and lots of optimization work for a seamless experience.
Users won’t be provided with the same rich feature package as it currently happens on the desktop, but the essential tools will definitely be there.
What’s more, Microsoft needs to redesign the ribbon model and tweak the Office tools, internally known as “WinRT apps,” to be used on several form factors and multiple types of devices, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and phones.
At the same time, Microsoft is also focusing on iPad and Android versions of Office, but this too takes more time due to the amount of work that needs to be done.
As Foley writes, Office wasn’t designed to be used on something else beside the desktop, so bringing it on other devices that are based on touch takes time.
There are no release dates available right now, but according to some previous reports, Office for iPad and touch versions aimed at Windows 8 users should be launched sometime next year.